Nowadays more people are in the habit of exercise such as walking or jogging for the purpose of enhancing health or of preventing or improving lifestyle-related diseases. In addition, there are so many potential exercisers (future exercisers), who want to make an exercise habit or think that they should make an exercise habit although they do not have the exercise habit now. However, there are also many people who abandon the making of the exercise habit due to a physical load (i.e. smothering feeling) associated with activation of circulatory system under an exercise load or due to accumulated fatigue.
So-called athletes contend ordinarily with development and improvement of an efficient, effective training method. However, some athletes are obsessed with improvement of athletic performance, and thereby cause overtraining or continue training while enduring accumulated fatigue. This may cause a serious problem of injury.
In this description, hereinafter, those who perform the exercise for the above purpose or as a hobby are referred to as common exercisers, and the athletes are referred to as athletic exercisers.
Some potential common exercisers are considered to abandon the exercise habit because of smothering feeling associated with increase in heart rate during the exercise, which is caused by long-term sedentary lifestyle. In particular, middle-aged and older people, who have been away from the exercise habit for a long period, cause a large increase in heart rate even under a low exercise load, and therefore may avoid the exercise more strongly.
Some athletic exercisers may routinely perform an exercise with an excessive intensity disproportionate to their circulatory functions, out of a sense of obligation to follow a practice schedule, to cause the overtraining or the like. The exercise intensity, which will be described in detail hereinafter, is affected by heart rate during the exercise. The exercise intensity may be relatively lowered by inhibiting the heart rate increase in the same practice.
However, no method for inhibiting the heart rate increase during the exercise based on the above viewpoints has been reported.
Patent Document 1 discloses a lactic acid bacteria-fermented food material having a property of reducing heart rate in a mammal, and use of a composition containing the fermented food material. However, the fermented food material of Patent Document 1 is for reducing “the resting heart rate” of a mammal suffering from a disease such as angina pectoris, hypertension, or atherosclerosis, thereby treating the disease.
Patent Document 2 discloses a heart rate alteration regulator for improving mental or emotional health, and a heart rate alteration regulating method using the regulator. The heart rate alteration regulator contains a hesperidin component, which is a flavonoid derived from a citrus. However, also the invention of Patent Document 2 relates to control of the resting heart rate.